Suzanne Isabel Ferreira, aka Panda Su, is a songwriter whose stories boil underneath their serene exteriors. Her new EP, I Begin (reviewed here), is a bite-sized portion of the tastiest of her humble, troubled songs. With Panda Su, both the lyrics and the instrumental space between them speak volumes. Tracks like “Alphabet Song” and “Bee Song” are incredibly powerful, and deserve second, third, fourth listenings – and beyond.

To celebrate the release of I Begin (and as a sly maneuver to try to get her Stateside… here’s hoping!…), I email-chatted with Ferreira about growing up in Scotland, the making of the EP, and her writing process.

Jesse Diener-Bennett: Hello Panda Su, welcome to BestNewBands.com!

Panda Su: Hello, thank you for having me.

JDB: Let’s get right to it. According to your bio, you spent your formative years in the forests of Fife and the Highlands of Scotland. Most of our readers – especially the American ones, myself included – can’t imagine what that would be like. Could you describe these places, and your experience of them, for us?

PS: Scotland is a beautiful country. Although I’ve been lucky enough to visit some wonderful places, it’s somewhere that I’ll always return to and somewhere that will always be home to me. I’ve spent my whole life in the countryside; open fields, rolling landscapes, fresh sea air, tranquillity; and it’s definitely an ideal that has shaped my music.

JDB: How did these places contribute to your musical life?

PS: I’ve always been inspired by the idea of living a simple life and I think this is reflected in the music that I write. I’ve never lived in a big city or town and have always found comfort in the peace and quiet of the countryside. I enjoy open space, whereas the hustle and bustle of city life makes me feel claustrophobic.

I’m a very private person and my music is my form of escapism. It’s my way of dealing with life’s complexities without really having to deal with them. Being out in the country allows me to escape.

JDB: Let’s talk about I Begin EP. When did you start working on it?

PS: I started working on I Begin in late October 2010. The snow was just beginning to set in for what turned out to be one of the coldest winters we’d seen in years.

JDB: Is the material on I Begin a departure from your older stuff?

PS: The songs on this record are a little more experimental than the songs on the first EP. Sticks and Bricks had a very simplistic approach; the four songs that featured on that EP were four of the first songs that I had ever written and I will always be immensely proud of what was achieved, but I Begin represents a slight move in direction for me musically. As an artist, I always want to push myself creatively and the songs on the new record allowed me to experiment with new sounds and different ways of doing things.

JDB: What was it like working with [I Begin producer] Robin Sutherland? From the sound of the EP, it seems like you two were very much on the same creative page.

PS: I’d already worked with Robin previously on Sticks and Bricks (my first record, which he mixed back in 2009), however this was the first time we worked together where he was the producer. Before we went into the studio, I made him a mix tape of ideas that I had for each of the songs and also played him songs by other bands and artists that featured sounds or ideas that I wanted to explore within my own songs. Robin understood exactly what it was I was looking for from this record and managed to capture it faultlessly. I’m really proud of what we achieved.

JDB: Your lyrics are often dark and always fascinating, while the musical accompaniment is often simple and light. What is the relationship between your lyrics and your music? Do you usually write one before the other? How do you feel they fit together?

PS: I always write the music first, followed by the lyrics. I have a fairly unconventional approach to song writing; I can’t force the creative process and that’s probably why I don’t write as consistently as your ‘typical’ songwriter. My lyrics are hugely personal to me and music is my way of showing emotion, without having to communicate in the ‘real life’.

JDB: Do you consider yourself a storyteller? What relationship do you have (through your music) with your audience, or what do you hope to communicate… if communication is even something you’re aiming for.

PS: I think it’s important for the audience to be able to relate to the music they hear. The subject matter of my songs is the same as most songs; things I feel, people I know, places I’ve been; but I choose to write about them in a less obvious way. My favourite songs are the ones that you can pull apart and re-assemble in a way that’s personal to you; and what’s so special about those songs is that the way it relates to you is probably completely different to the way it relates to the person standing next to you. I don’t write about concrete things in an obvious way because I find that extremely boring. When I listen to a piece of music I don’t want to know what the songwriter had in mind when writing the song. I want to imagine that the song is written for me, about something that is important to me.

JDB: Despite the intricacies of the songs on I Begin EP, there seems to always be a clear beat for the listener to fall back on. Was this done on purpose as a sort of safety blanket? Or was it more instinctual than that?

PS: This was done instinctively. I knew I wanted to experiment with percussion in this record and we dabbled with drum loops as well as live drums in the studio., but in the end the majority of the drum parts that we used weren’t made using drums at all, but by shaking objects like cereal boxes and by rustling jacket sleeves.

JDB: I’m always intrigued by people who are the sole creative force behind their music. What’s it like to be the total “owner,” I guess you could say, of what you write? What are the pros and cons of writing alone?

PS: I’m quite a selfish songwriter – the songs I write aren’t written for other people, they are written for me. The creative process is one that I’m very precious about and it probably doesn’t help that I’m also a terrible perfectionist. As well as writing my own songs, I also release them under my own label, Peter Panda Records. For me, it’s important that the music I am making is music that I want to make and by releasing it myself, it allows me to have complete creative freedom. There are of course cons to this, as putting out your own records can be a costly and highly stressful affair. It’s much harder work and you need an incredible amount of patience, but I think it pays off and is worth it in the end.

JDB: Any chance you’ll be coming to the States anytime soon? Please?

PS: I got the chance to visit the States a few years back, although at the time that was more for travelling purposes than musical. I’d love to spend time in the States but it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a UK artist to be granted permission to travel over. I’ve recently started working with an agent in the States with a view to getting my music more involved in film and television, so hopefully this will give me the opportunity to get out there and play some shows in the not too distant future.

JDB: The I Begin EP is an awesome start to 2011. What do you have planned for the rest of the year?

PS: We just finished a preview tour for the new EP last month and have our official I Begin launch show this week. We got the chance to play some shows in Europe last year which was great, so I’m hoping to get back out there at some point. Other than that, we’ll be playing some sun-kissed festivals up and down the country this summer, before pilling back into the panda bus to complete another UK tour later on in the year.

JDB: Thanks so much for chatting! I hope we hear a lot more from you soon.

 

Panda Su’s I Begin EP was released this week and is available for order from Amazon. You can hear selections on her myspace page and at Believe Digital.